Sunday, April 16, 2017

THE UNBOXING - APRIL 2017

One lone item this month, courtesy of Marvel: The CAPTAIN AMERICA EPIC COLLECTION: JUSTICE IS SERVED. This volume marks another nice chunk of Mark Gruenwald's long CAP run in Epic format, and, even better, it plugs a gap between 2014's SOCIETY OF SERPENTS Epic and 2011's "prototype" Epic, THE CAPTAIN. Between all three books, that's CAPTAIN AMERICA issues 302 - 350, plus associated annuals and tie-ins -- roughly one-third of Gruenwald's run -- collected consecutively!

(And by the way, if you want to extend that streak backwards, 2012's DEATH OF THE RED SKULL collects issues 290 - 301, by J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck, too!)

Furthermore, with this volume now released, there's only one unknown Epic Collection remaining to fill in the gap between THE CAPTAIN and 2015's STREETS OF POISON book. Hopefully that volume, which would include the fan favorite "Bloodstone Hunt" serial (and which I'd be willing to bet will be named for that very storyline since the 2010 collection is long out of print), will be the next Gruenwald-era Epic to see release, because, being the anal-retentive fan I am, I much prefer unbroken runs on my bookcase rather than those that skip around. But in any case, the clear takeaway from all of this is that it's a very nice time to be a fan of Mark Gruenwald's CAPTAIN AMERICA.

2 comments:

I've been enjoying the reprints of Gru's CAP. Not sure why they skip around the issues, but at least we're finally getting these stories reprinted. My preference would be for the rest of the Ron Lim issues to be collected...that arc with the Black Queen remains uncollected, doesn't it?

Hmm, it looks like the Selene story would be in the unknown collection I mentioned above, to slot between THE CAPTAIN and STREETS OF POISON. She's on the cover of issue 369, and that book should cover roughly issues 351 - 371. It would also include "Bloodstone Hunt" and "Acts of Vengenace" -- a pretty nifty collection!

After that, Lim would be fully collected. 386, the final issue in STREETS OF POISON, was his last on interior pencils, with Rik Levins taking over as regular artist with #387 (though Lim continued to provide covers through issue 393).

So if we get that book between THE CAPTAIN and STREETS, that would be all of Lim's run and all of Gruenwald from his first issue through #386, leaving a little more than the final third of his run remaining -- and that section is quite underrepresented. I know people snicker at Capwolf and the armor in "Fighting Chance" (both of which, ironically, were collected by Marvel in standalone volumes some years back), and I get that the early stuff with the Serpent Society and John Walker, and the middle period drawn by Lim, are probably considered "peak" Gru, but I like a lot of the stuff after issue 400, too.

Anyway, I know it'll all reach the Epic Collection format someday; it's just a matter of time. (And in the meantime, I believe the entire run is already available on Marvel Unlimited!)